Sweet Holiday Treats

I love gathering recipes of tasty food gifts to make and give or simply to make and eat during the holidays. I found a wonderful {dark chocolate bark recipe with pistachios, pumpkin seeds and dried cherries}… which makes my mouth water just thinking about it…and another recipe for {SPICY and sweet candied walnuts}, that I thought I would share with you.

Both of these recipes are simple, quick to whip up, and make a wonderful, little gift.

Walnuts are one of the few plant foods that provide the heart healthy fats, omega-3 fatty acids. I love adding walnuts to my salads. Adding a bit of sweet and spice to walnuts makes them even a bit more delicious {at least, to me}

Start with fresh, good-quality walnuts.

Boil them in water for 3 minutes. While walnuts are boiling away, prepare the sweet and spicy mixture. Start with powdered sugar….

Add a bit of spice to the sweet sugar with cayenne pepper and a bit of salt too.

Drain and dry off the walnuts, then immediately roll in the sugar mixture.

Then off to the oven to bake and… voila!

Sweet and Spicy Success….love this new recipe! If you’d like to try to make these candied walnuts too, click for recipe here! If you are not crazy about cayenne pepper, substitute the same amount of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice! (This recipe is low in FODMAPs)

My next sweet treat recipe I tried this weekend, was Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios, Sweetened Dried Cherries, and Pumpkin Seeds. Instead of making bark, I made small chocolate rounds.

To package these gorgeous chocolate circles of goodness, I used small glassine envelopes and placed each chocolate in it’s own protective envelope. I sealed the envelope with ribbon lined with adhesive.

Layered them in a box.

Then secured the box with string and adorned it with miniature ornaments. I get all my wonderful boxes, envelopes and ribbon at the Paper Source.

So cute, right?

Here’s the Dark Chocolate Bark Recipe And if you are one of my low FODMAP diet followers, make the chocolate rounds a bit smaller to reduce overall sugar intake and substitute in dried cranberries for the cherries, and substitute walnuts or pecans for the pistachios (high fructans).

You still have time to whip up these deelish recipes for the holiday season!

I have heard that coconut is okay and in small amounts is probably fine but I am waiting to see the actual numbers before I put it on my list. The nuts limit is based on a serving size the amount you would have at one sitting –you could have another serving later in the day. 100% whey protein powder should be fine and low FODMAP–just be sure to check ingredient info to evaluate if their are any other FODMAP ingredients. Remember FODMAPs are carbohydrates not protein.